So what's Startup Weekend about? According to its website, SW is part of a non-profit worldwide effort to support rapid startup formation over the course of a weekend, or roughly 54 hours. At the beginning of the weekend, people pitch potential business ideas and the crowd votes on the best ones. Then teams organically form around the teams.

I attended and wrote about last year's inaugural Startup Weekend event in Baltimore, where 130 people showed up and around 20 ideas were worked on. Parking Panda was one of them, a service for helping match drivers to open parking spots in urban areas, won the event and has since gone on to receive more investment. I was impressed to see how far ideas came, with some having working prototypes and smart designs.

This year, contest winners will have a pool of $10,000 worth of prizes and services to win from. Last year, that amount was around $6,000. So, SW in Baltimore is growing -- good news.